I don't think most Japanese people realize how popular Japan has been in America and other Western countries the last 10 years or so. Most people are surprised to hear I like Final Fantasy or know some anime like Azumanga Daioh. In fact, I know about more anime than a lot of people I've talked to. Or at least they don't know the ones from the mid-90's, like Cowboy Bebop or Trigun. So I thought I'd explain why for a bit.
I think most of the popularity stemmed initially from video games. Pretty much everyone growing up in the 90s had a Nintendo 64 or a Playstation at some point. Probably played an older Nintendo console too. I had less exposure than most until PS2. Everyone had Gameboy's too. When Pokemon came out in 1997, EVERYONE played it. EVERYONE had the cards. It was HUGE. I woke up at 6 in the god damn morning to watch it. It was fucking epic. Then Digimon also started airing. It was also fucking epic.
Then around 2000, Cartoon Network started a time slot called Toonami. It was all anime. Dragonball Z and Tenchi Muyo and Gundam EXPLODED and virtually everyone was watching and talking about them. About the same time the PS2 came out and I saw a commercial for FFX and just had to have it. Around this time I was unable to read something in a game and decided to learn Japanese.
A couple years later, Cartoon Network started a late-night thing called Adult Swim. They had some new comedy and some anime, including Yu-Yu Hakusho, Outlaw Star, Cowboy Bebop, and Trigun. Inuyasha too, at some point early on. FLCL too. There was also the Anime Network, which was mostly on-demand with Comcast cable. I watched Cromartie High School on there, as well as a few other things. Manga also started getting very popular in these years. There's actually an American version of Shounen Jump.
People also started sharing more anime on the internet. I didn't get good internet until 2004 when I went to college. Now I could get subtitled anime and hear Japanese. And shows that weren't even released in America. And I started reading scanned and fan-translated manga online. And that's about where we are now, except there are certain people who are really dedicated to following current releases. You can get new episodes within a day or two of them airing, and Shounen Jump comics go up half a week before the magazine goes on sale. When you read the current One Piece chapter, people in America have already read it several days before.
So that's why and how popular Japan is in America and everywhere else.
